Energy

China used to call Russia its ‘older brother’. However, never again since the fall of the USSR. In an effort to portray its status as a less powerful yet assuredly more senior neighbour, Russian officials have recently begun referring to their country as China’s ‘elder sister’. The new term has proven less popular in China.

In most financial market contexts, crude oil maintains its position as one of the most actively traded commodities in the world. In futures markets, light sweet crude oil is the most commonly traded futures contract, and price trends in these areas can be a great indicator of how commodities as a whole are likely to trade in the near-term. Over the last year, we have seen some historic price movements in oil and precious metals. Here we will look at some of the factors that

Oilfield services, shipbuilders and other industries that rose with the pre-2014 oil price boom have had it hard. Since barrel rates fell, their previous patrons have become uninterested in doling out major purchase orders, leaving oil and gas equipment manufacturers without revenues.

China was responsible for 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2012. According to World Bank research, cities consume more than 65 percent of global energy and emit some 70 percent of greenhouse gases. Transforming cities into ‘low-carbon cities’ will therefore be an important policy tool in mitigating climate change.

Oil has broken down further today. The ostensible trigger was the larger than expected build in US inventories. However, the price of oil has been trending lower since the beginning of last week. It appears that our skepticism of talk of an output freeze is gaining support.

The Saudis have indicated that they do not see a need for action, while the Iranians have not yet returned output to pre-embargo levels.